Technocracy (bureaucratic)
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Technocracy ("techno" from the Greek tekhne for skill, "cracy" from the Greek kratos for "power") is a government or organizational system where decision makers are usually highly skilled in fields of management or any other field. A technocratic government therefore is a government by experts.
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[edit] Technical, not technological
The "technical knowledge" in question need not be related to the hard sciences, as is usually assumed, and therefore has no relation to technology. In its broadest sense, a technocracy is merely the rule by those who are skilled best in their fields: in this case it is often a provisional form of oligarchy, in which the economy is regulated by economists, social policy is decided by political scientists, the health care system is run by medical professionals and so on, with all of the various branches of the government working together and sharing knowledge to maximise the performance of each in as equal a way as is feasible. Often, the upper branches of government are organised by logisticians, as technocracy sees society as a fundamentally logistical system.
The term was used in the United States as early as 1919 by engineer W.H. Smith. It came into common usage through management theorist James Burnham's 1941 work Managerial Revolution. The term became widely used to describe politics and now generally refers to an elite who governs through use of technology/technological prowess.
The situation usually described is one in which the elite are selected through bureaucratic processes on the basis of specialized knowledge, rather than through democratic or other processes. Technocracy is often thought of as 'rule by scientists and engineers,' or bringing these groups into power, though this is only one form of Technocracy. The term may be either positive or negative. Typically a "technocracy" is a form of de facto elitism, whereby the concepts of "most qualified" and a ruling elite tend to be the same.
As a Technocracy, in the broadest sense of the term, is the rule by the highly skilled, it is (by definition) a form of meritocracy, aristocracy, bureaucracy, and it is often also a plutocracy and an oligarchy.
The general term has been applied to a number of governments, most notably Singapore and the current government of the People's Republic of China.
[edit] Criticism of Technocracy
One essential criticism of technocracy is that many governmental decisions are not technical, but political in essence. A technical decision is one that may be reached through know-how, expertise and experience, using rational arguments. A political decision is one that reflects some subjective choices, for instance regarding human values, or some choice regarding some very uncertain future.
This criticism may come from either end of the political spectrum. Socialists or social democrats, for example, may charge that neoliberal structural adjustment policies represent technocrats (such as in the IMF) setting policies in the name of macroeconomic growth without considering how cutting subsidies in developing countries might affect the poor. At the other end of the spectrum might be the Kelo eminent domain controversy in the United States, where critics objected to a city's confiscation of homeowners' property to give to a corporation, largely on the basis of higher tax revenues. While these cases are very different, in each of them the critics of the policymakers believed the essentially technocratic character of the decision-making failed to take into account important social or moral factors.
Also, technocrats may focus on their particular area of expertise, whereas many governmental decisions have to approach matters from different points of view. An environmentalist technocrat may seek to limit pollutants, while one overseeing industry may seek fewer restrictions on pollutant emissions. The problem is that each technocrat seeks to optimize efficiency in his particular field of expertise. Political arbitration then has to be brought in.
Finally, technocracy lacks popular sovereignty. Democratic governments govern in the name of the people, and the people may influence their decisions. Technocracy in its purest form is a variant on the old theme of oligarchy. Even without the assumption that popular sovereignty is good, technocracy, like all oligarchies, has tendencies to derive into a self-promoting regime that disregards the objectives that it was supposed to seek.
[edit] Technocracy and democracy
It has been argued that a constant progression to a more technocratic society is inevitable, as many issues have become too complex for most people to easily grasp. Thus, as a theory of civics, it may be that technocracy opposes democracy, which assumes that almost no issues are in fact too complex for most people to grasp. For those who support democracy and oppose technocracy, the increasing complexity of the modern world requires the introduction of increasingly better forms of public education in order to keep the population informed and able to deal with complex issues. An educated population is considered to be the basis of an effective democracy. Ironically, technocracy and its proponents also seek a strong educational system as one of the, if not the most important element(s) of a well functioning society, as a technocratic government relies on the steady "generation" of educated individuals. The difference simply lies in that technocracy is far more hierarchical: while democracy holds that a well educated public should be able to make all decisions on its own behalf, technocracy holds that a very well educated public becomes less realistic as the population grows, and that among larger populations, the most effective organisation is a moderately well educated public who are thereby well-equipped to understand, implement, and criticise the policy decisions of a very well educated elite.
A form of government that combines elements of democracy and technocracy is anticipatory democracy, which relies on prediction markets and other such somewhat inclusive means to find the most accurate predictors of scientific and technological trends.
[edit] Technocracy and socialism
Socialism calls for an economic system based on production for the needs of all of society, with the goal of advancing quality of life for all in an environment of social equality and respect for workers. From this standpoint, opinions are split among socialists as to whether it would be possible for technocracy and socialism to work in concert or whether they are fundamentally opposed. Those who believe that technocracy and socialism can cooperate argue that a body of highly skilled scientists and engineers would be most able to act as economic planners and manage the economy for the benefit of all. A majority of socialists, however, take a more skeptical view and argue that no matter how skilled those technocrats may be, they will always serve their own interests rather than the interests of society as long as they are not placed under democratic control. Thus, most socialists oppose technocracy on the grounds that it is undemocratic and any undemocratic form of government cannot work for the common good.
[edit] System of governance
Technocracy can also refer to a system of governance in which laws are enforced by designing the system such that it is impossible to break them. For instance, to prevent people from riding the trolley without paying, you could simply design the tramcars so that no one can hop on without first inserting payment into a slot which causes the door to open.
The same idea can be applied on much larger scales, with automated public surveillance by semi-intelligent systems that automatically control or limit the actions of individuals to prevent illegal activity. This is called the carceral state, in which the whole state is effectively a Panopticon - a prison with strict rules, where all individuals are supervised to ensure compliance. Author Charles Stross called this a Panopticon Singularity. In this way, the bureaucratic form of technocracy may be an authoritarian system governance.
The principles of anticipatory design, wayfinding, and B. F. Skinner's vision Walden Two, to some degree echo this potential, but relying on psychology and conditioning exclusively, and not on any intrusive technology to enforce the rules.
[edit] See also
- Groupe X-Crise, formed by French former students of the Ecole Polytechnique engineer school in the 1930s
- Technocratic movement, a US group formed in the 1930s
- Totalitarianism
- New class
- Meritocracy
Forms and Styles of Leadership: see also Form of government
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